AP-MO--TeenDies(TOPS) 07-05 0224

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS (AP) - A 16-year-old Excelsior Springs girl is dead after the vehicle she was driving through a flooded crossing was swept into a creek. The highway patrol says Brooke Baxter's body was found inside the submerged vehicle in Williams Creek Wednesday night. The S-U-V she was in was carried about 100 yards downstream from the crossing in Excelsior Springs, in Clay County. Flash flooding was reported there and in Taney County after storms developed, but the state has received no reports of serious flooding or substantial damage. Meanwhile, water levels are receding in parts of southwest Missouri that had been swamped earlier in the week by floodwaters coming from Kansas. About six homes had water damage in St. Clair County and some mostly rural areas still had limited access today. While most major roads including U-S 71 and 54 had reopened several secondary routes around Schell City, Taborville and Rockville were still closed. The towns are mostly in Bates and Vernon counties along the Missouri-Kansas border and have been hit by swollen rivers in Kansas, which are running into Truman Lake.